Donate To Feel Great: Isabel Hospice launches urgent appeal for new stock
For some people, rummaging through a charity shop in Bishop’s Stortford in search of treasure, trinkets and heirlooms is a favourite pastime, writes Emma Cooper.
However, the rise in online selling platforms such as Vinted and Depop threaten to make this humanitarian hobby a thing of the past, impacting the volume and quality of stock across the charity shop sector as people increasingly opt to pocket the proceeds of their second-hand items rather than donate them to worthy causes.
Where there were once seas of wonderful bric-a-brac, bare shelves and barren hangers have forced Isabel Hospice to launch an urgent new stock appeal.
Its campaign, Donate To Feel Great, calls on the community to make the vitally important choice to donate their unwanted quality goods and support the charity’s crucial work.
The campaign, running from mid-July for four weeks, aims to bolster the hospice’s stock offering across its 16 bricks-and-mortar shops as well as its highly successful online eBay store.
Charlotte Greenwood, Isabel’s head of retail and marketing, said: “We urge the public to have a summer declutter. Think about that dress you haven’t worn for several years or the ornament gathering dust in the corner – will you ever wear it; do you still need it?”
The charity’s appeal is not limited to clothing: accessories, homeware, small electricals, vinyl records, collectables and other saleable items are all valuable for ensuring its survival.
Donations can be dropped off at either the Bridge Street or South Street shops in Stortford. Both are open Mondays to Saturdays (9am-5pm) and the South Street shop, Always Loved by Isabel, opens Sundays too (10am-4pm).
If you wish to donate a large haul, the charity encourages you to call first to ensure it has room to accept the donation that day. Alternatively, mobile donation days are held throughout the year at Bishop’s Stortford rugby club. The next date is Monday August 5, from 10am to 2pm. For health and safety reasons, do not leave donations outside closed shops out of hours.
Furthermore, Charlotte encourages any readers who know of companies and businesses with surplus stock to reach out by emailing charlotte.greenwood@isabelhospice.org.uk.
“We need your help now more than ever to continue providing the high-quality care our patients and their families rely on,” she said.
Renowned for providing exceptional palliative care services across eastern Hertfordshire for more than 40 years, the charity’s services include Hospice at Home – which enables those facing a life-limiting illness to spend their remaining days in the comfort of their home – as well as its in-patient unit, community team, Living Well with Isabel programme and family and bereavement support service.
Last year, the Bridge Street shop alone helped to fund 1,061 hours of compassionate care. By ensuring that its shelves remained stocked, hospice volunteers will be able to continue their mission to “ensure that no one in the community faces life-limiting illnesses alone”.
Not only do the public’s donations fund the charity’s palliative care, but Isabel Hospice also assures climate-conscious thrift-shoppers that they benefit the environment by “turning pre-loved items into nursing hours”.
Its sustainability initiative, Tonnes of Care, launched in 2022, runs seamlessly alongside Donate To Feel Great, attempting to salvage what they can of the 300,000 tonnes of clothes thrown away by British households each year on average.
Instead of discarding items that still have plenty of life left in them, Isabel Hospice urges their owners to give them a second chance, extending their lifecycle, reducing the demand for new products and thus supporting the circular economy.
In 2022-23, 1,894 people in eastern Herts used Isabel Hospice services – 63% were cancer patients and 37% had other diagnoses – whilst 3,376 people attended its Compassionate Cafés.
All the services are free to those who need them but cost the charity £7 million a year to run. Only a quarter of the funding is from the NHS, meaning the charity relies heavily on donations as well as income from fundraising events and from its shops.
The charity generated more than £83 million of social value last year for customers, staff, volunteers and donors, meaning that every £1 spent in its shops generated £11.76 of social value for local communities.
Emma Cooper, who lives in Cheshunt, is an A-level student taking English, sociology and history at Haileybury Turnford. She spent a week’s work experience with the Indie.